Timor-Leste National Nutrition Strategy 2014-2019.

The Vision of the present Timore-Leste National Nutrition Strategy (TL-NNS) 2014-2019 is to contribute to sustainable achievement of national socio-economic and human development goals by improving the quality and productivity of its human capital. Its specific goal is to improve the nutritional status of Timorese population and its purpose is to accelerate reduction of maternal and child under nutrition through implementation of nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions.
The underlying rationale is that poverty engenders malnutrition and malnutrition in turn contributes to economic loss. Therefore prevention of malnutrition, especially of mothers and children is an essential factor for the socio-economic development of a country. The first attempt was made in 2004 with the National Nutrition Strategy establishing nation-wide programmes but unfortunately the nutrition situation of the country overall remains poor with 50.2% stunting, 11% wasting and 37.7% underweight in children under five years of age. The present Strategy provides a stronger framework for multi-sectoral action to address the immediate, underlying and basic causes of malnutrition. The process of developing this Strategy was led by the Ministry of Health with technical assistance of Unicef. The process was participatory, consultative and inclusive where all nutrition related line Ministries and partners were consulted and their views incorporated.
In particular, the priorities identified by the present National Nutrition Strategy 2014-2019 are to: 1) Improve nutrients intake by mothers, children and adolescent girls; 2) Improve care for mothers and children; 3) Improve food security at household, community, and national levels; 4) Improve hygiene practices and access to water and, sanitation; 5) Promote optimal nutrition behaviour and practices; 6) Improve policies and capacity for multi-sectoral nutrition action.
The Strategy aims to achieve the following three outcomes: 1) Increased coverage of Nutrition Specific Interventions which are “interventions or programmes that address the immediate determinants of fetal and child nutrition and development - adequate food and nutrient intake, feeding, care-giving and parenting practices, and low burden of infectious diseases”; 2) Increased coverage of Nutrition Sensitive Interventions which are “interventions or programmes that address the underlying determinants of fetal and child nutrition and development”. These include food security; adequate care-giving resources at the maternal, household and community levels; and access to health services and a safe and hygienic environment; 3) Enabling national policies, programmes and coordination mechanism. These three outcomes shall be attained through a development of Logical Framework, a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and an Operational Plan. The two latter ones shall contribute to ensure that the strategy is adequately funded, implemented and monitored.
The implementation of actions for achieving nutrition outputs, will be through respective Ministries with their respective budgets and formal inter-sectoral coordination mechanism established at national, district and Suco level. The Ministries involved are the Ministry of Health, of Finance, of Public Works, of Agriculture and Forestry, of Education, of Social Solidarity, of Commerce, Industry and Environment and last not least the Ministry of State. Nutrition specific interventions such as feeding and care practices promotion and protection from illnesses will be implemented mainly through health sector. Nutrition sensitive interventions for improving food availability, affordability, access, quality, utilization by families and communities access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions will be implemented mainly through non-health sectors i.e. Agriculture, Education, Local Development, Social Solidarity, and WASH related sectors.
The text consists of 8 Chapters as follows: Introduction (1); Nutrition Situation in Timor Leste (2); Vision, Goal, Objectives and Priorities (3); Intervention Targest (4); Strategic Priorities (SP) (5); Results Chain and Logical Framework (6); Strategy Implementation (7); Annexes (8).